Get Everything Done

I have tried to get Autofocus working for me, but even after continued attempts it pushes me in the wrong direction. Whether that is due to personality type, way of thinking, procrastination I don’t fully know.

Here are some of my general thoughts as to why Autofocus doesn’t fit with me,

1) I think routine items should be separate from main actions – so that time spent on what is considered ‘routine’ can be monitored. If you are not careful ‘routine’ can take up most of your time.
2) I think project actions shouldn’t be mixed with single step actions – mixing items I think leads to an unfocussed approach. I don’t personally think it is as effective as spending ‘quality’ time focussed on a project as a whole. Treating project actions as single step actions to me disconnects the available possibilities. A project is a unit in its own right and while the odd project action might suit a single step approach I am not convinced it is the best method as a whole.
3) You don’t need To-Do Lists/Lists for your priority items. If they are required then perhaps they are being used as a form of avoidance – rather than assisting in the doing process.
4) You can’t attempt to manage time until you monitor time in a realistic way, to see how it is being used. List Management to me is not necessarily the same as Time Management (if that actually exists). I think there might be a risk that in this instance List Management overwhelms Time Management as a whole.
5) Blanket Capture holds too many possibilities – we can all do anything given enough energy, time, resources – to me a filter needs to be applied at source. To help stop a feeling of overwhelm and help combat procrastination.
6) What is common sense to one person – might be different to another. Common sense to a self professed workaholic and chronic procrastinator is somewhat of a contradiction in terms. If common sense was a factor both issues wouldn’t exist.

That is not to say there is anything wrong with Autofocus - it just really doesn't suit me or my own personal way of thinking.

All the best

Steve

On paragraph 3) :
"You don’t need To-Do Lists/Lists for your priority items. "

Agreed.
But I still need a list for low priority items like work and earning a living.

On paragraph 4) :

Doing an 8 to 5 job, my usage of Autofocus is for Attention Management, not List Management or Time Management.

how you are handling "someday" tasks? i have loads of those spinning in my head. but still it's not useful to list them (as overhead) since i will not move them forward necessarily yet.

Rainer, I liked the distinction between Attention Management and List/Time Management and I use Autofocus that way too. I also think of it as Motivation Management, since I've never been so motivated to actually follow-through on so many projects before.

Vp,
if they are true 'someday' tasks I put them on my list of 'future possibilities' which I review monthly. It doesn't make sense to me to put them on my AF list when I know I can't work on them for the next several weeks.

Rainer,
thanks for your reply & clarification.

so, basicly i need two lists; af & future possibilities

do you have one list for all tasks, or e.g. 2 lists; work & home?

Two AF lists, one for work (office), one for home.

Mark:- I appreciate both methods can be utilised in Autofocus. I am starting to feel though that either daily workload should revolve and centre around a priority project. Or projects should revolve and centre around daily workload, with deadlines being the drivers for project work. Where I see my own issues arising are when either no daily workload is specifically defined or no priority project is in play and worked around. In other words to an extent I need an anchor. If I have no anchor I float aimlessly about.

Rainer: - I am not so sure a big list of items is the best way to direct attention. Though I suppose if Autofocus is working for you then that ‘focus’ part is giving you that direction.

VP:- Someday items to me indicate that time is an infinite resource – I would say personally it is a scarce commodity. My own thinking on this is I would turn a ‘someday’ item into a planned action and schedule it ahead in time, viewed as an action. Which is simple to do with DIT but I am not so sure how that would be accomplished in Autofocus.

So far i've been using AF just few days, but results are good.

I think, AF works because of:
1. it's simple: no need for special gear, minimal overhead or no need to change habits etc
2. supports dynamic input of new task items
3. one & complete list of tasks to do (reminds GTD's trusted system)

However, reason why it works better than other systems; you use intuition to pick the task and you do it as long as you can/want.

Steve: comments to your original post:
Partially procrastination occurs since one doesn't know where to start (i.e. overwhelm) and one reason is self-pity (i.e. "i should do x, however, i haven't done it.") => AF lowers this barrier since you are "allowed" to do what stands out and long as you want.

Recommendation

It'd be nice to get "transcript" of one AF day for instructions as an example. I.e. people would see & understand how AF is used in practice. What is on list and how list changes etc.

Steve
Sorry you didn't like AF.Did you actually try it or did you get put off by the instructions?
It IS a simple system.But if I modified it to do all the things you describe as shortcomings,it would become bloated,and I would spend more time managing the system than actually doing things.:-)
It's working for me ( I can only speak for myself) and believe me I've tried everything else and failed to be as productive as I have in the past 3 weeks

Good luck anyways
Jay

Re having a "someday" list... I have several "side" lists. For example, a list of things to discuss with my wife. A grocery list. A hardware-store shopping list. Another is a folder of emails, each containing some action item for me that relates to a particular project.

Each of these lists has a corresponding task in AF. E.g., "talk with wife", "get groceries", "clear project emails".

When I have a new task, where I need to discuss something with my wife, I put it on my "discuss with wife" list; and then add "talk with wife" on my AF list.

I'm finding that the general idea of having "side lists" works very well in tandem with the main Autofocus list. To my Autofocus list, I can add either the general idea ("work on Project A") or I can get more specific ("get the presentation done for Project A"), or both! This is one reason I really love Autofocus -- it is very flexible and very intuitive, and it doesn't mind if I have lots of duplicate items on my list. In fact, the duplicates help ensure that important tasks are seen very often as you go through the list.

When I was first contemplating AF, this idea of duplicates, and of copying tasks forward, stuff like that, really made me balk. I thought it would be a tedious task to copy things forward all the time. But in practice, it just takes a second, and I haven't found it to be a problem at all.

As far as time management goes, I think two secrets to it are not taking on more than you can do and doing stuff before it becomes urgent. If you are consistently adding more to AF than you're getting done then it's an indicator you need a rethink of your commitments. And I've found AF has been really great at getting me to do stuff ahead of time and chip away at stuff that would normally need a huge impending deadline to motivate me into doing stuff.

I don't think AF stops you project planning or having goals. I keep all my project task lists out of AF but I will have lots of references to those projects - either just the project name, or Next step Project Name, or look at Project Name or think about Project Name or specific tasks in the project as I think of them in AF. Like Seraphim, not having to worry about duplicate tasks makes it so much more simpler.

There are a number of tweaks mentioned on the forums to deal with urgent/routine/scheduled items. I find checking first thing in the morning as to what needs to get done and work on these first where possible is a good method. If you wanted to be more project goal focused, you can just allocate a current initiative and work on it for the morning. The afternoon can be AF.

I don't think it's such a bad thing that if you get carried away with AF and spend too much time on a project if it needs to get done. But when I find that I need to get through a number of things in a day, I just set a timer and finish up that task when it goes off.

Steve I can see where linear thinkers could go nuts with AF. It suits me because I am already all over the place mentally. LOL. If it isn't for you, return to your method and it is instructional for Mark. But I wonder if you have included recreational activities on your list? One of the things I love most is that my recreational time is more fulfilling. It is as though I have given validity to things I want to do that restore me (read magazines, play piano). In the past I would have mindlessly surfed the web and would have felt guilty and sluggish. Anyway...just wondered if that could help you with the workaholism.

Mel

Rainer, why do you have a separate someday list?

Aren't the tasks rejected from your main list, and distinctively highlighted so you can easily recognise them, in effect your someday list?

David, I have the someday list since 2003 and intend to keep it. It's a text file on my computer. And I intend to trash my Autofocus notebook when it's full and I have to start a new one. Keeping the someday list of 'future possibilities' gives me some continuity for things I want to do in the future.

Sometimes I look at very old versions of that file and see how things have developed for me or not.

But, of course, if you keep your old notebooks, then you don't need a separate someday list. As you wrote correctly, the tasks rejected from the main list and distinctively highlighted are in effect the someday list.

Steve

Just one other thought came to mind from your post - you said "I think routine items should be separate from main actions – so that time spent on what is considered ‘routine’ can be monitored. If you are not careful ‘routine’ can take up most of your time."

Routine tasks need to be done but I wonder what you are including as routine - for example checking email, having lunch, keeping accounts up to date, stacking the dishwasher, are all routine tasks but they all have to be done. If I have a list of 30 items, including urgent/non-urgent or whatever tasks that all need to be done, provided any deadlines are met, the order in which they are done does not matter. As a major procrastinator I may only have been say 50% productive and would therefore complete only 50% of my tasks. With AF, because I am not procrastinating and my productivity is closer to 100% then I get everything done.

I think the hardest part of AF is "allowing" yourself to do "what you feel like doing". It feels unatural and the first response is to think it can't possibly work.

Just a suggestion before you give up on AF completely .......
Try alternating one day using AF totally intuitive, doing exactly what you feel like doing and resisting the urge to control it. Then spend a day working your usual way. Try alternating for a few days and at the end of each day take time to write down what you have acheived that day. Do a comparison at the end of your experiment and I suspect you will be surprised ........

As I say it's just a suggestion ....